Messing with them
by AniZH
Summary: Jade shows up in school with wristbands on both her wrists. Her friends have known for a while now what that means – that she and Beck used handcuffs in bed. Only that they have been broken up for two months now.


Hello!  
Yeah, those of you who follow my work probably have already noticed that I'm not uploading all that much anymore. There are different reasons for that – mainly that I'm barely writing at all, also not on my very own story. But part of the reason is also that I feel like almost all the stories I can tell about Victorious are told in my 70 something stories I wrote. There are still a few left, also some grounded on ideas some of you gave me, but... yeah, it's going slow.  
Anyway, this story came to be because of a request that AllAboutThatPotter made in a review to my one shot Marks. This one shot follows the happenings of that story, though the time of everyone being 18 and in their Senior Year has to be fascinatingly long for this to work. ;) As they obviously were 18 in the one shot Marks already. ;)  
This one shot takes place during Beck's and Jade's big seperation in the show and though I usually try keeping all my stories in canon, I went a different route this time with them possibly getting back together or not in a different way.  
Thank you so much to AllAboutThatPotter for the suggestion! I hope it's close to what you imagined it to be and that you'll enjoy it. :) I think I could've milked your idea way more but for now, this is the result. :D  
I wish everyone fun reading this fic!

* * *

Beck texts Moose from Karaoke Dokie and his friend texts back that he won't be coming to Tinkle-Aid but that they will see each other at Beck's home. He's staying in the guest room at Beck's parents house.

Beck doesn't get it. He doesn't know what else Moose could be doing.

He does notice that Jade also isn't there but... that's neither here nor there. After they didn't come to rehearsals and didn't help them, the guys told the girls they also didn't need to the thing itself. Of course Jade then also wouldn't come. Not to a thing called Tinkle-Aid.

Beck gets home late. His parents are in the living room watching TV. He finds Moose in the kitchen, eating some leftovers of Beck's parents' dinner. Or just finishing that up.

"Hey. Where've you been?" Beck asks him.

"Out with Jade," Moose easily answers while taking the last bite.

Beck is sure he misheard. He thinks about what else Moose could've said which would sound similiar, while the other boy stands up and puts his plate and fork into the dishwasher.

Then, Beck finally asks: "Out with Jade?" Why would he be out with Jade?

"She offered to give me a ride to your thing but... we ended up making out and stuff."

No. That couldn't be true. Because Jade never really wanted anything from Moose, did she? It was always just about the competition against Tori and Cat for her. Right?

"You made out with Jade?" Beck checks, keeping his voice steady.

Moose pulls his eyebrows together as he looks at him. "It's not a problem, is it? You told me you didn't care when she, Cat and Tori all acted so crazy."

He did tell him that. Because Jade never actually wanted to be with Moose, did she?

And either way: "She's still my ex girlfriend."

"Ex, right," Moose slowly responded.

Which doesn't make it okay. Beck's pretty sure that Andre would agree with him that you don't get with you friend's ex, no matter what.

Moose adds: "You broke up with her."

Which is just not true. "We broke up with each other."

"That's not how she told the story," Moose says. They talked about their break-up? Seriously? Why? "You didn't go after her."

"I..." Beck starts but he doesn't know what to say to that. Yes, he didn't, but it's because she didn't want him to, right? She was the one to leave. She was the one who didn't come back. Because secretly, she had wanted to break up for days but couldn't do it with all they had. But she didn't love him anymore.

Moose keeps explaining, as if it was no big deal: "I thought that either her story is true, then you shouldn't care because you left her. Or your story is true, then you also shouldn't care because you both decided that you should be broken up. And which kind of person would be angry then if their ex had something going on with somebody else."

Every kind of person, right?

"We are friends," Beck reminds him. He isn't just some random guy apporaching Jade but his friend who knows of his history with her. After Moose met her, he told him about her. About how much they loved each other once and how they have broken up but tried to stay friends as they also are in the same group of friends.

"We are," Moose says, confused. "I don't see your problem."

He does see that Beck has a problem. Well, and isn't it obvious?

"My problem is you messing with my girlfriend!"

"Ex," Moose reminds him and looks weirded out at Beck's suddenly raised voice. "Chill, man."

Beck doesn't know what's happening but suddenly, he's taking a swing at Moose after he has never ever even tried to hit somebody else.

Moose is able to block him. "Hey, hey!" he calls out, as he pushes Beck away, looking at him as if he was a stranger, now suddenly at least a bit angry, after the anger has boiled up in Beck since their conversation has started.

"I'm going to the guest room before you can continue what you'll regret," Moose decides. "No need to drive me to the airport tomorrow. I'll get a ride from someone else."

.

Beck doesn't care that Moose doesn't know anyone else in the city, not really. Except those people, Beck introduced him to. He most likely won't find another ride but what is it Beck's business? He can also take the bus or something. He can also just get lost somewhere and never get home at all anymore.

Beck calms down over night though. Moose was his best friend back in Canada. They were barely able to keep in touch over time but it was so great to finally meet again now, to have Moose in his new home town, showing him everything and catching each other up.

Beck might think it's not right for Moose to make out with Jade but... Jade is free to do whatever she wants. Why shouldn't Moose be?

It pisses Beck off but it isn't worth breaking up the friendship with Moose over after they just reconnected, right? It's also not like Moose would ever get together with Jade – Jade wouldn't do long distance, Beck knows.

The next day, after having woken up late, Beck walks into his parents' house but he doesn't find Moose there. For a moment he thinks he already left, but then he notices his suitcase still there. It should also still be a few hours until Moose has to get to the airport.

He comes back from wherever he has been when Beck's still eating a late breakfast. Beck tells him he's sorry about his reaction the day before and that he obviously can give him a ride to the airport. Moose says it's no problem at all, that he gets it, and accepts the ride.

.

.

As soon as he sees Jade in school on Monday, he notices it. He notices them. The wristbands around her wrists. Both her wrists.

No. No, it can't be. She's messing with him. She has to be messing with him!

She barely ever wears wristbands on both her wrists at the same time. She only does it when she has something to hide on her wrists. Certain marks left by handcuffs which Beck loved to use on her to handcuff her to his bed. They didn't do it often like that because it left those marks which she had to cover.

It happens that she wears one wristband because it's her style, but... two?

Their friends found them out not long before their break-up and after that Jade covered both her wrists about two times to mess with their friends. She found it funny to see their eyes widen at them and them looking between Beck and Jade as if wondering how exactly she got marks again, without really wanting to know.

Now, she's messing with him. There can't be any other reason for it. She can't actually have done anything that would've left marks on her wrists. Beck would know. Because Beck would have participated. But they are broken up and they didn't have sex at all for two months now, since they broke up.

She does it to mess with him or to make fun of him. There can't be another reason.

He still stares at Jade, who has come into their acting class just in time, and gives off the same vibe as always. He still stares at her when he suddenly thinks of Moose. Moose who told him he and Jade made out and stuff. Stuff.

No, he can't have meant anything like this. He would've said that they slept with each other as casually as he told Beck that he made out with her.

But what if he did sleep with her after all? What if he went back the next morning, went to her to maybe ask her for a ride to the airport, and slept with her out of spite against Beck?

But Jade wouldn't. She couldn't.

No, maybe she would have slept with Moose. She might have been attracted to him and there was that stupid competition between her, Cat and Tori. But she never would have had sex with him in that way. She never would have let him handcuff her in any shape or form, a boy who was pretty much a stranger to her.

Beck and Jade have quickly found out how much of their sex life going into that direction has to do with trust. Jade had to trust Beck to not do her wrong and Beck had to trust that Jade would tell him to stop if it became too much for her. The trust part made it better for both of them because they also quickly found out that they trusted each other beyond compare and that their trust was justified.

She isn't able to trust anyone else like that. And she isn't a person that could do that kind of stuff without that complete trust, always assuming the worst of people.

But... what if? His reasonable side might tell him that it's nonsense but everything else inside of him screams at him for being nice to Moose and not killing him. He's so damn angry at his supposed friend and also at Jade. It's a sickening anger, covering the pain at the thought of Jade with someone else and especially her trusting someone else like she ever only did him.

.

.

It's not just Beck that notices. Since their friends found out, their eyes get so easily drawn to Jade's wrists whenever they are covered up. They can't help it. It's crazy because they are embarrassed by it and at the same time extremely curious about it and... well, it's a confusing situation for them. This time, it's especially confusing.

"Have you noticed?" Andre checks in when it's just the four of them during first break.

He doesn't need to say what he's talking about as Jade just went past them to her own locker and they all stared at the wristbands once more.

"Have she and Beck..?" Tori asks, unsure. They can't have, right? They are broken up after all. Or did they get back together over the weekend?

Robbie reasons: "With whom else?" And that's also true. As not even Cat knows of some other guy (or girl) in Jade's life, something must have happened between Beck and Jade again.

The group is honestly glad about it. They always hated the fighting between the two of them and that has mostly stopped by now. But somehow, the mood between them nowadays is even worse because it's not right. It feels awkward and wrong whenever the whole group spends time together and Beck and Jade... behave like they are nothing for each other. If they actually worked out their issues and got back to the happy couple they've once been... their friends would be extremely happy.

So of course Andre has to ask in their next class which he shares with Beck and Robbie: "So you and Jade?"

Beck doesn't say anything and Andre still feels more threatened than ever before when his best friend slowly looks to him. He feels more threatened than he ever felt by Jade though yes, he's totally scared of her sometimes. He's more scared now.

This isn't a dark look telling him that it's uncool to ask about it, about his and Jade's relationship and especially their sex life, at all but also in school. This is a dark look telling him that nothing new happened between Beck and Jade.

"Wait," Robbie says, also getting that part but missing something else that Andre sees in Beck's eyes. "Isn't she wearing...?"

Beck looks over to him and Robbie immediately stops talking.

"What?" Beck asks with a vicious undertone in his voice.

"Nothing," Robbie is quick to say, before he takes flight to his own chair, not looking at Beck again.

Andre is also quick to sit down now and doesn't keep talking to Beck. Beck who has noticed those wristbands too and wonders just as well where Jade might have gotten handcuff marks from.

.

.

While they don't talk to Beck about it again, Andre and Robbie of course tell Cat and Tori all about their short conversation.

While Cat is biting her inner lip, all this making her nervous, Tori asks: "Do you think she did it with someone else?" Or does she wear the wristbands because... well, she wants to wear them, not to cover something.

"With whom?" Andre asks sceptically.

Cat is the one to suggest it: "Moose?"

"No way," Tori immediately says. He wouldn't have. He wouldn't have had sex with Jade at all. He told all of them that he wasn't interested in neither of them, that he found all of them crazy. But especially him doing something to Jade that would require her to hide marks... "He would never do something alike."

"That's what we thought with Beck," Robbie reminds her. Which is true. But no. Moose too?

Cat meanwhile looks worried: "Is he okay?"

Tori doesn't understand the question at first, doesn't know whom Cat is talking about for a moment, until Andre answers with a sinister face: "No."

.

.

Tori and Cat decide to approach Jade about this with whom they share their next class without the boys. To find out if she just made a style choice or if there is anything to hide.

"How are you doing, Jade?" Tori tries to start the conversation while walking up to her after Jade finally came into the classroom and sat down at her usual table.

Jade only looks at her with a raised eyebrow. Yeah, okay, they all know that she doesn't appreciate questions like these.

Cat tries a different approach which makes Tori's eyes widen and her feeling absolutely horrified: "Did you have some fuuun?" Cat beams at her own question as if it was something you should ask someone directly, especially at school in a classroom surrounded by other students.

"What do you mean?" Jade asks.

But Jade must know what Cat means. Tori tries to say that but it somehow doesn't get out: "Well, you... We... It's just..."

Jade raises her eyebrow again which shuts Tori up. Cat's the one to directly asks, now worriedly again: "Don't you have handcuff marks again?"

Jade looks at her darkly. "Are you seriously asking me that?"

The look and the tone of Jade's voice makes Cat squeal out of fear and Tori quickly says, before anybody can get killed: "No, we're not. Let's talk about our last class."

.

.

Jade enjoys it. She loves all those stupid looks by her friends and finding them whispering with each other at every break. That Tori and Cat even came up to talk to her about it this time but got scared just because of a few looks and words... Glorious!

How much she loves to mess with them! They are just so naive and easily scared and confused and... Jade loves it.

The wristbands aren't covering anything but that it makes all of them wonder...

After she started making out with Moose on the night of Tinkle-Aid, he eventually pushed her away and told her that he shouldn't make out with her because of Beck. How she hated to hear that name in that moment after she only made out with Moose to forget Beck – well, and to prove herself to be better than Tori and Cat.

She asked him what Beck told him about their relationship and Moose said that Beck told him that they broke up with each other and that Beck also told him that he didn't care if he would go out with Jade but that he still would feel uneasy about this.

Of course, Jade set him straight and told him what actually happened between Beck and her, before they went back to making out.

But with the conversation still fresh in Jade's mind, how could she forget Beck, so she kept the make-out short before they grabbed some burgers and started talking about The Scissoring and other horror movies they liked instead.

The next morning, he texted her again and they kind of ended up meeting because he had nothing else to do and... well, she also didn't. That's where he told her all about Beck's reaction to their make out session the night prior. He was actually jealous. After everything, after having been broken up for two months, he reacted jealous. After leaving her.

Well, and she thinks about their break-up way too often and maybe, the story she told Moose and considers true, isn't actually the whole story. Maybe she also didn't make it easy for Beck to follow her. Maybe Beck needed her to come back, to not set that kind of deadline, to prove that she still wanted to be in a relationship with him because she loved him. Maybe Beck thought she didn't love him anymore. Just like she thought he didn't love her anymore.

But if he got jealous now, even after the break-up and the long seperation...

Of course, she needed to see for herself and not just trust Moose's word on it to believe that Beck was actually jealous. Not to mention that she totally also loves to mess with him.

.

.

Beck can only check himself until lunch and only because he barely needed to see or talk to Jade until then. But he's sitting already at their usual lunch table with Andre, Robbie and Cat when Jade and Tori come along and sit down with them.

Beck doesn't notice the awkward looks their friends share while Jade basks in them. He's too focused on her wrists. He feels like he just has to stare at the wristbands for long enough to be able to see through them and see if there are marks.

The others try to talk like usual but Beck isn't listening.

Then, Jade suddenly rubs one of her wrists. Not after pulling the wristband slightly off like he knows her to do when she still feels the aftermath of handcuffs but... still, she probably does it because she remembers what happened. What happened between her and Moose.

Beck can't help himself: "You are kidding, right?"

He finally looks into Jade's face and Jade cocks an eyebrow: "About what?"

Their friends also immediately stopped talking and are looking between them, holding their breath.

Beck reaches over to Jade, past Cat who's sitting between them, and tries to pull off one of Jade's wristbands.

Jade immediately slaps his hand away. "Let go of me!"

Beck is sure to hear one of their friends say his name warningly as he reaches further and actually grabs Jade by her right wrist firmly. She tries to pull away as they glare at each other, but he keeps holding on. His friends again say his name and maybe some other words to stop him.

And then, she whispers, provoking: "Hit me."

He wouldn't. He won't. She isn't scared of that, is she? Is she trying to provoke him into it to prove to herself that he's that kind of person after all? No, he won't hit her. Not actually, when they are fighting. It's a totally other thing when they are in bed and it turns both of them on. This isn't this kind of situation. He won't hit her because he's actually angry with her.

He lets go because he doesn't ever want her to think he would do that and that makes her look almost more angry.

"Wimp," she spits out before she suddenly gets up and leaves, into the school.

Beck jumps up and follows her before one of their friends can think of anything to say or to stop him.

"Should we follow them?" Robbie checks unsure.

Should they? Tori doesn't know. "Do you think they will actually hit each other?" She kind of thought Beck would hit Jade just now.

"They would never," Cat says with big eyes.

Andre is still looking after them and finally decides: "Let's leave them at it."

.

.

She knew he wouldn't hit her. How often she already provoked him more than anyone could stand but he never raised his hand against her.

It made her heart ache before and it does now. Because that's one of the things she loves about him. That's what she needs. She needs someone who never actually becomes violent, no matter what she does. She needs someone who is endlessly patient in that way. Because she is someone to provoke other people and she can't be in a relationship with someone who would be short tempered about that.

He only hurts her in a sexual setting, when she wants him to. Gosh, and does that turn her on. He even allows his anger against the world, against anything, then flow into his actions but is always enough in control of himself that he still could stop at any second.

He's perfect. Of course he wasn't happy with her anymore. That's what she thought after their break-up. As if it had been bound to happen at some point.

But now he's jealous. He still loves her. And she remembers how comfortable he also always was with her. She has seen how unhappy he was during the last two months though she hasn't connected that back to herself before.

"You can't actually sleep around!" he now calls after her.

The school is almost empty with everyone at lunch – though spectators also never stopped them from fighting before.

"Can't I?" Jade responds, stopping and turning around. Beck stops right in front of her. "I am single, you know." She needs to know if he wants to change anything about that.

But Beck doesn't say anything. He just stares at her. Or glares. She's sure that not even he knows if he's angry with her or with himself or maybe just scared of something or... well, what exactly he's feeling.

"Got nothing to say about that?" she asks.

Beck breathes out as if he hasn't done so for minutes, almost shaky. Then: "Just the thought of you with him... with anyone, really. It takes my breath away, Jade."

"Jealous?" She wants to know if he knows and understands what he's feeling. She knows.

Beck also does: "Yes. Yes, I am." A moment, before he adds, sounding angrier again: "And I have every right to be!"

Okay, this should be good. "You do?"

Exasperated, Beck asks: "Can you stop responding with questions?" He takes a step closer to Jade, which she bets would look threatening for others with the way he sounds and looks right now, but she never has to feel threatened by him though she riles him up like no other. Just like he never feels threatened by her.

Well, and she should stop messing with him. She should let him know what this is all about. "Moose told me that you behaved all jealous."

"And you decided to mess with me," Beck says and weirdly he sounds angry but also as if he knew, and relieved all the same.

"I wanted to see if it's true," Jade says. "And to mess with everyone because it's fun."

Beck nods slightly but is still comprehending what's actually going on. "But you did make out with Moose."

"Yes," Jade confirms. "So? He's attractive and we actually share a few interests."

And it's the way Beck looks at her at that. Defeated. Because he doesn't understand that she didn't just want to see him jealous and mess with him and their friends.

Well, if she has to spell it out... She does, with a voice too small to her own liking: "And I thought it could make me forget you."

Beck blinks. "You can't forget me?"

She looks into his eyes and shrugs. It's answer enough for him.

"I still love you," he confesses as if she didn't know that by now. That's what she responds at first: "I figured that after I saw for myself how jealous you got."

Beck smiles softly at her. Because just like she understood by his jealousy that he still loves her, he understands by her saying that she can't forget him that she still loves him. And they both understand by each other's reactions that they not only love each other but that they also both thought a lot about their break-up and their relationship during their seperation and that they learned a lot and that they want to try again.

She still thinks she should outright confess too, just to assure him: "I still love you, too."

His smile gets wider and they both take the last distance to each other and kiss.

They break apart after a long time but only barely.

"We should talk, huh?" Beck says.

"Later?" Jade responds because right now, she just wants to be with him. Wants to feel his warmth and his lips that she missed so much, that Moose couldn't compare to at all.

Beck is quick to nod, undoubtedly feels the same, before they get lost in another long kiss.


End file.
